Technical Appendix

Drawing on evidence from six research briefs, this summary finds that Florida’s teacher workforce is undergoing significant change, with growing reliance on novice teachers, persistent turnover, and uneven access to qualified educators across schools and communities. Taken together, the findings suggest that teacher workforce policy should focus not only on filling vacancies, but on creating the conditions that allow teachers to remain and grow in the profession.

As Florida’s rural communities continue to change, this brief finds that the state’s most geographically isolated schools face the greatest challenges recruiting and retaining a stable teacher workforce.

This brief finds that Florida increasingly relies on beginning teachers to staff its public schools, but high rates of attrition during teachers’ first five years threaten long-term workforce stability.

Using statewide data from 2020-21 through 2024-25, this brief finds that Florida schools are increasingly relying on inexperienced, temporarily certified, and out-of-field teachers, with these challenges concentrated in schools serving larger shares of economically disadvantaged students and students of color.

This brief examines how the composition of Florida’s teacher workforce has changed over time, finding a more racially and ethnically diverse workforce but an increasing reliance on novice teachers to staff public schools.

This brief examines changes in teacher salaries across Florida and finds that recent investments helped boost beginning teacher pay, but compensation growth has not kept pace for many experienced teachers.